Merge Clips: Dual-System Sound Support
Professional productions generally record audio separately from video while on location to get the best results. Referred to as “dual-system sound,” this means having to merge the separate elements in the editing phase, a task Premiere Pro didn’t handle well in previous versions. Thankfully, with CS5.5 Adobe has added the Merge Clips feature, which makes short work of this task.

Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts
Making the leap from Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer and lost without the familiar keyboard commands used by those applications? Premiere Pro CS5.5 to the rescue! Adobe allows you to quickly switch to competing NLE shortcuts to ease the transition, with the ability to fully customize them to your every whim.

Perform Insert/Overwrite Edits
Previously known as an Overlay edit in earlier versions of Premiere Pro, CS5.5 allows you to perform the more common Insert/Overwrite edit, complete with a new drag and drop graphic overlay button in the Program Monitor so you’ll have visual feedback with each edit. CS5.5 also brings the ability to add keyframes and extract frames from a sequence in the timeline as well.

Mercury Playback Engine Performance
Building on the 64-bit Mercury Playback Engine introduced with CS5, Premiere Pro CS5.5 now offers even faster playback of mixed-format timelines with more GPU-accelerated effects and transitions, including the new Film Dissolve shown above. No more rendering for speed changes or blur effects, and field-order processing is a snap with CS5.5.

Adobe Story Integration
Part of the CS Live online service, Adobe Story is a collaborative scriptwriting tool introduced with CS5 that now gets a more streamlined workflow with Premiere Pro CS5.5. Import Adobe Story scripts into Premiere Pro, complete with metadata, without the need to go through OnLocation first. Premiere Pro’s Speech Analysis area in the Metadata panel allows you to view your embedded script and align it against your edited work.

Expanded Support for RED Cameras
Premiere Pro gained full native access to the RED R3D format with CS5, but the latest version introduces a host of changes including a redesigned Source Settings dialog box with intuitive controls for users of RED cameras. Load, save and create custom presets for RMD and adjust your color scheme with either a histogram or five-point curves.

Roundtrip Audio Editing with Audition
Audio editing tool Adobe Audition has finally arrived on the Mac with CS5.5 (it was previously a Windows-only affair), allowing for tight integration with Premiere Pro, including the ability to send your edited project to Audition for further audio work, then straight back to Premiere Pro for final output. OMF support in both programs also allows high-quality exports to other editors such as Avid ProTools.

5.1 Audio Support
Adobe Audition CS5.5 comes with native support for multichannel soundtracks, making short work of 5.1 surround mixes -- whether they’re new or existing projects. The new Track Panner panel offers parameters for angle, stereo spread and radius, while 5.1 files can be opened in the Waveform Editor to make direct changes with audio effects tools.

New Audio Effects
Last but not least, Adobe Audition CS5.5 piles on the audio effects with a new DeHummer, DeEsser, Speech Volume Leveler and Surround Reverb in addition to traditional DSP effects. Third-party VST and Audio Units effects are also supported, which means the plug-ins you already know and love on the Mac are ready to rock your world in Audition as well.